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Do you celebrate Halloween? Like so many festivals, Halloween is heavily linked with trashy food. If you are interested in ways to have a great Halloween while still following a healthy Paleo lifestyle then read on, because I have some great ideas to help you have a fun holiday.

One of the things to keep in mind with Halloween is that it’s all about spending time with family and friends and having a good time – rather than the treats you can and cannot eat. I know that Halloween is a big “treat” holiday, but there are plenty of other things you can focus on to have a good time.

As far as trick-or-treating goes, you can still have fun and do that; however you want to focus on the social fun traditional aspect of it, rather than the end result of candy. Take your family out and have fun. You can have a lot of fun creating unique costumes and so this is your chance to go out and show them off. At the end of the night you can spend time with your family and make your own tasty paleo treats. Some parents offer their kids a buy back scheme – to offer cash or another reward in exchange for the junk they collected.

I was really impressed to see how one father enabled his son to join in the fun – whilst avoiding the sugar filled junk normally given to trick or treaters – see the photo below. Would you try something like this?

You can make some great Paleo friendly treats to enjoy. Try spiced nuts, jerky and kale chips instead of sweets and candy.

When you buy pumpkins to carve, make sure you save the inners to make a huge batch of pumpkin soup. You can use the carved pumpkins to serve dips for veggies, instead of plain bowls.

Well there you have it! Here are some ideas for you to make the most out of your Halloween. Just remember to not focus on what the world tends to focus on, which is the sweets, lollies and candy. Focus on having a fun time with friends and family and prepare some Paleo friendly snacks in advance.

Not only is this soup wonderfully creamy and comforting, it comes with an added zing courtesy of the lime and chilli. Perfect for a cold day!

I always multiply up the ingredients to the size of my largest pan. Any soup that I won’t use, I then freeze into individual portion sizes, making lots of ready prepared meals I can just heat up – or take into work.

Soup Ingredients:

1 small pumpkin, deseeded and cut into wedges

½ butternut squash, as above

4 – 5 sprigs of fresh thyme

2 tbsp olive oil

700ml water

Juice of 2 limes

1 teaspoon of cumin

1 teaspoon of coriander

1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes

Salt and black pepper

Soup How To:

1) Heat the oven to 180C / 350F / gas mark 4. Place the wedges of pumpkin and squash into a roasting dish, coat with the olive oil and season with salt and black pepper. Roast for around 45 minutes until really soft and tender (this may take a little longer depending on the size of your veggies) then remove from the oven and leave to cool.

2) Scrape the flesh away from the wedges into a large pan. Add the water and the spices, and blend well with an immersion blender.

3) Heat through, then stir in the lime juice. Season to taste and enjoy.

Well, actually, it’s Butternut Squash, Carrot and Sweet Potato soup – but these three are loaded with Vitamin A and Beta-carotene as well as many other vitamins and minerals.

I love soup – even though it’s summer here in Australia at the moment, I still eat it regularly. I find it really filling as a meal on its own and easy to make in advance. This is something I make in the largest pot I have and separate out into lots of individual portions, before freezing. I make lots of different soups, but this one is my favourite as it’s sweet and has a great texture.

I slice the onion and sauté it in the coconut oil in a large pot. Once it’s ready I add the chicken stock (this is something I make up in advance and take out of the freezer to defrost).

I roughly cut all the vegetables into chunks before adding them to the pot. I then turn the heat down to a simmer and allow the vegetables to cook for 30 minutes or so, adding the seasoning. I add the nutmeg and coriander at the end and turn off the heat.

I don’t drain the pot, but instead transfer it all into my blender (in several batches) and blend it until it reaches a nice constituency. Once it’s all blended I separate it into individual portions and freeze.

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